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Ariel Frenkel has broken her silence on The Bachelor‘s nightmare Fantasy Suite dates that played out in Season 27, Episode 9. And we were correct in assuming she…uh…had no idea that Zach Shallcross went back on his “no sex of any kind” rule after they spent the night together.
Ahead of Monday night’s Bachelor finale, Shallcross’ third runner-up, Frenkel, joined host Jesse Palmer to chat about her time on the show and share her thoughts on all that Fantasy Suite Week drama.
For those who need a refresher, Shallcross kicked off the penultimate episode of the season by imposing a “no sex” rule for Fantasy Suite Week. He stayed true to his word during his overnight with Frenkel, then caved and had slept with Elnicki on his second date of the week. He made a huge deal about having to clear his conscience and tell “everyone involved” — meaning Biggar and Elnicki — but for some odd reason, we only saw him come clean to Biggar, which left Bachelor Nation wondering if he even had the decency to check in with Frenkel before eliminating her in the rose ceremony.
Well, our questions were answered Monday night, when Frenkel addressed the Fantasy Week drama in front of a live studio audience. After Palmer confirmed that Frenkel was “totally in the dark” at the end of Week 9, Frenkel said, “I’m really hurt. It really hurts to find everything out on TV when everyone else does with a partner that you’ve shared so many intimate moments with. I was really disappointed in the way the whole week was handled. I was disappointed in the way that I was left completely not knowing anything from Zach.”
When Palmer welcomed Shallcross to the stage so he and Frenkel could reunite for the first time since they said goodbye in Thailand, she finally got to give him a piece of her mind.
“I feel like it was really hard to watch everything back,” she said. “It was really difficult to see that you weren’t honest with me. I committed to being in an open relationship. That’s what it is. That’s what I’m gonna call it. And we were. And when the parameters of an open relationship change, I should be the first to know. I should not have been left in the dark standing up there in Thailand at the rose ceremony. You had ample time to also tell me about everything before I left so I just really want to know why the other women were given grace and honesty, and that’s something you really pride yourself on, and why I wasn’t given that same respect after the way we build our entire relationship on so many other moments… I felt like it denigrated our relationship and also left me in the dark.”
After a long stretch of applause, Shallcross admitted he “absolutely” looks back on the week with regret. “Tto be fully honest, I was going through a lot mentally and I didn’t know the right way to handle everything,” he said. “As we all saw my actions, setting the parameters for that week was not the right way to go about it. And you’re right. I should have told you probably first. And the way that week was set up with having the next date with Gabi, it was just a lot going on in my mind. And I do owe you an apology for not telling you at all, and you finding out when the rest of the world did. And that’s on me, and there’s just no excuse for it.”
“Yeah, there isn’t,” Frenkel said. “You owed me so much more than that, and you owed our relationship more than that, and also the other women more than the way you handled everything. And I think by putting sex off the table you made the entire week about sex, and it didn’t need to be like that.”
Shallcross agreed with Frenkel and reiterated his pure intentions going into overnight dates and his regret for the way he handled everything.
“I appreciate your apology. I just also want you to understand that you took away my agency in that night in our conversation. When you come to all the women with a universal opinion on what should happen, we’re no longer a couple, or talking as a couple, or coming to a conclusion as a couple,” Frenkel said. “So you took away my agency. You took away my ability to even have a conversation. And if you had waited you would have found out that I was on the same page as you.”
Shallcross apologized again for being selfish and making the week on-sided, and Frenkel, composed as ever, said, “I’m not here to drag you through the mud, I’m not here to make you feel worse. I hope you learned from the experience.”
Luckily for Shallcross, Frenkel’s brother Bobby wasn’t in the audience.
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